BRISBANE — Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper today repeated his version of a “testy exchange” with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the G20 meetings, claiming he power-crunched Putin’s hand and bluntly told him to “get out of Ukraine”.
Putin, however, has a different version.
The Russian leader says that Harper’s voice was cracking and he “had a wet food stain on his tie.”
“I call a gas bag a gas bag,” Putin told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation matter-of-factly just before boarding his plane to return to Moscow.
“Yes, Mr. Harper did sort of stutter and mutter get out of Ukraine, but he just kept staring anywhere but my eyes like he was mad at my nose or something.”
“I felt badly for him…he was so nervous.”
CNN’s Wolf Blitzer (not his real name) aired audio on his show earlier today where the word “gas bag” can be clearly heard and Mr. Harper seems to reply, “Sorry”.
CNN also noted that Mr. Harper was sweating profusely at the time
